Four minutes later, Drew Brees and Co. were deep in Cardinals territory, when an official announced that the Saints had taken a timeout. And, in fact, they had taken a timeout. So ... improvement already.

UPDATE: Just before halftime, an official told the crowd that a play was under review ... before telling us it wasn't.

I spoke with former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt on Saturday about the impact of college-level referees being dropped into the NFL arena. The biggest difference to him? Fewer calls during the course of a game. We'll need to travel through more of the preseason to measure that theory.

Gaffes aside, Sunday night's crew wasn't some collection of newbies. Umpire Timothy Morris has 16 years of Division I experience and six years in other professional leagues. Field judge Rusty Spindel has 25 years of Division I experience and 15 years in other pro circuits. The rest of their team offered similar experience, so we expect the replacements to get a handle on this, especially after spending the past few weeks preparing for NFL games.